USS Bataan Sailors Receive Transgender Training

“All commands are mandated to have this training from the Navy,” said Ms. Ingrid Smith, Bataan’s deployed resiliency counselor. “They want Sailors to know that transgender or individuals who identify as transgender will now be allowed to actively serve in the Navy.

Interestingly, the article goes out of its way to qualify what the “training” actually is:

According to Smith, transgender briefing isn’t meant to change anyone’s view but to deliver information.

“What we’re doing is educating,” said Smith.

That sounds reasonable and understandable. The military frequently promulgates new policies and wants to ensure its troops understand them. (Whether briefings, training sessions, etc., are the best means to do so is a topic for another time.)

But no sooner had she made that reasonable statement did Ms. Smith step into questionable territory [emphasis added]:

“What we’re doing is educating,” said Smith. “With education comes awareness and then acceptance. With anything that is new, people are kind of shocked by it. That’s why we are educating our crew…”

Smith goes on to say this new change to the fleet may be a shock to some but will eventually be normal.

That doesn’t sound like mere policy training — that sounds like undertones of a social agenda. Trying to get people to move to “acceptance” is, indeed, trying to “change [their] view,” contrary to her prior statements.

As to her contention that it will be “normal” one day — there are a lot of things that people aren’t shocked by anymore.

But a seared conscience — or a resignation to the sins of society — isn’t something to which the military or society should be aspiring.